5.13

Hunter, Jimena, and Silas looked up at the fleshy mess that hugged the ceiling of the building. Lines of red and blue weaved through the bloated pale, purple mass.

“What do you reckon that is?” Silas asked.

“A nest? Maybe its what the trash golems spawn from?” said Hunter. Yellow liquid oozed and dripped to the ground. It sizzled on impact with the floor and a pungent stench filled the room.

“I don’t get a good feeling being near this thing,” said Jimena.

“Neither,” said Silas.

“Hey Stick, you busy?” asked Hunter. He pointed his wrist communicator at the fleshy mess.

“A little, what’s up?” Stick’s breathing was heavy.

“Get a look at this. You ever seen anything like this before with the Trash Queen?”

“Get out of there, now!”

“But we need to secure the building.”

“That’s a nest for her golems. You have to kill it with fire, nothing else works. Get out and I’ll send in someone else. They won’t stop coming out of there.”

“There are still people in here.” Stress started to mix its way into Hunter’s voice.

“I’m sending others in now. They’ll get the people out. Hunter, you three need to get out. You said you’d do as I say. I’m telling you to get out of there now.”

“Okay, we will.”

“You heard her, we need to get moving,” said Silas.

“Yeah, let’s go,” said Hunter.

“Hey, look,” said Jimena. She pointed at the fleshy mess and the three of them watched as large drops of liquid slowly descended from the ceiling. Four drops fell, each one containing a trash golem.

The drops of liquid popped, and the trash golems slowly rose to their feet. They all looked at the three teens and rushed at them.

Jimena let loose her slime balls. When was driven back into the balustrade and crashed through. The creature fell to the bottom and splattered on impact.

One locked into combat with Hunter. Its hands grabbed his arms. Hunter could feel his skin burning and willed the dust to coat his arms. It lessened the burning sensation a little.

Hunter formed the rest of the dust into a hammer and swung it into the chest of the golem. It stumbled back and fell where the first one had.

Jimena pelted another one with her slime balls and made quick work of it. She blasted it to pieces, the body slowly taken apart in chunks.

Silas inflated himself and carried the last one with him through the broken balustrade. He let go of the creature and bounced back from the far wall.

“That was easy,” said Silas.

“Almost too easy,” said Hunter.

“Hunter, why are you still in the building. Get out.”

“Sorry, we got caught up by those trash golems. Coming now.” Hunter, Silas, and Jimena made their way down the building.

They knocked on all the doors and called out for everyone to leave. Most of the residents did as they were told and followed the team out of the building.

Stick met them outside and instinctively stepped between the teens and the building.

“Sorry Stick, we had no idea,” said Hunter.

“Its all right. You guys could easily get overwhelmed if you had stayed in there too long.” The team watched as a pair of heroes dressed in suits of red and orange entered the building.

“Backburn and Flameblast,” said Silas.

“They didn’t seem to come out too fast,” said Jimena.

“But they can.” It was obvious Stick didn’t want to argue about the situation.

“So what do we do now?” asked Silas.

“How can we help?” asked Hunter.

“Help evacuate the people that live here. A path has been secured out of Crooked Downs and a hall has been set up as an evacuation point. Make sure they get there safely.”

“Right,” said all three of them at once. Hunter surveyed the scene and could see police and a few heroes lined the streets and directed people where to go.

“How can we help?” asked Hunter. The three of them had approached a group of civilians that were being led by a police officer.

“Just keep any of those nasty creatures away from us if they approach. Our guns and tasers seem to do almost nothing to them.”

“No worries.” Hunter turned and watched as the building they had come from was engulfed in flames.

Hunter, Silas, and Jimena stood sentry and made quick work of a few trash golems that tried to attack civilians.

A colossal explosion ripped apart one of the buildings. Silas, Hunter, and Jimena were sent flying.

Hunter tumbled across the ground and lay still for a moment. His head was a drowning mess and all noise around him was muffled. With all of his strength, Hunter slowly pulled himself up onto his knees and watched the unfolding chaos around him.

Many people lay scattered along the ground, unmoving. A few rose and they were bleeding or covered in blood. Everyone looked dazed and unsure of what to do.

Hunter got himself to his feet, and apart from feeling winded and battered, he felt okay. Scanning the scene, Hunter stumbled around. The sound slowly filtered its way through his ringing ears.

Screams and cries filled the streets. People ran about in a panic.

“Silas! Jimena!” Hunter continued to stumble about. He watched as some slime rose up and the form of Jimena solidified.

“Have you seen Silas?” Jimena asked.

“No.” Hunter joined Jimena’s side and they looked about.

“There he is.” Jimena pointed to some rubble and laying amongst it was Silas. The two ran over and kneeled down beside him.

“You okay bud?” Hunter asked.

“What was that?” asked Silas.

“I have no idea,” Hunter replied.

“Looky over there.” Jimena pointed over to the now destroyed building. Stepping out from within the destruction was a sleek looking suit of power armour.

A panel opened up on the shoulder and a dozen small rockets whizzed out and scattered in various directions. Each one made an explosion a lot bigger than the size would imply.

“That’s not good,” said Jimena.